R B Ramesh in joint lead

International Master R B Ramesh displayed good technique while demolishing the defences of Grandmaster Mark Tseitlin of Israel in the third round of the Masters event in the Biel Chess festival in Switzerland.

Ramesh jointly leads the strong 104-player field with a hundred per cent score along with GM Boris Avrukh of Israel, GM Milos Pavlovic of Yugoslavia and IM Igor Yagupov of Russia.

The Indians put their bad performance in the previous round behind them and, barring Woman Grandmaster and title aspirant Aarthie Ramaswamy, scored comprehensive victories.

Aarthie went down to IM Gennady Fish of Ukraine in a closely contested game arising out of a Kings Indian defence.

A regular in the European circuit, Ramesh played his third round game with great zeal. Playing black, the Madras-based Indian Oil employee was certainly up to the task in the Rossolimo Sicilian. Playing one of his well-prepared variations, Ramesh caught Mark off-guard in the intricacies of the middlegame that had a volatile pawn structure.

Ramesh had his sights trained to have a go at the king once his opponent ventured into unwarranted complications on the 14th move with a knight manoeuvre.

Ramesh first won a pawn and then unleashed an attack on the kingside to finally emerge the winner in just 30 moves.

GM Abhijit Kunte, who holds the joint fifth position on 2.5 points, defeated FIDE Master Yvan Masserey of Switzerland.

Kunte opened with his pet English opening and got a position akin to the Benoni defence with colours reversed. Kunte fought the middlegame hard, sacrificing a pawn on the queenside to enter complications that favoured him in the end.

The highly imaginative Knight deployment by the Indian Grandmaster after the 20th move had Masserey gunning for the kingside with another pawn sacrifice on the 23rd move. In the picture perfect knock-out blow, Kunte sacrificed a rook to force resignation. The game lasted 27 moves.

Aiming for his final Grandmaster norm, IM D V Prasad put in a fine performance to outclass Antonio Campanile of Italy from an irregular opening game with black pieces.

Having lost his game against GM Vadim Milov of Switzerland in the previous round, Prasad came back firing on all cylinders in the middlegame with some finely crafted manoeuvres on both flanks.

The efforts reaped right dividends as Antonio lost control of the proceedings and came up with some lacklustre moves that allowed Prasad to rip open the kingside with a thematic pawn advance.

Prasad sacrificed his queen to force checkmate in 47 moves.

IM P Konguvel got the better of Ireneusz Lada of Poland in a one-sided affair. Konguvel chose the Panov Botvinnik variation to counter the Caro Kann defence and got into the groove right from the word go.

The middlegame netted Konguvel a queenside pawn majority and he went on pushing the pawns to create a dangerous passed pawn on the queen Bishop file.

Lada kept looking for a counterplay that did not come forth and called it a day after losing his queen on the 34th move. This was a good comeback victory by Konguvel who had lost to Grandmaster Riazantsev of Russia in the second round.

Important results (Round 3):
Milov Vadim (2.5) drew Solak Dragan (2.5)
Jenni Florian (2.5) drew Tukmakov Vladimir (2.5)
Avrukh Boris GM (3) beat Raetsky Alexander (2)
Yagupov Igor (3) beat Riazantsev Alexander (2)
Mark Tseitlin (2) lost to R B Ramesh (3)
Mikhalevski Victor (2.5) drew Zollbrecht Josef (2.5)
Kritz Leonid (2) lost to Pavlovic Milos (3)
Abhijit Kunte (2.5) beat Yvan Masserey (1.5)
Gennadi Fish (2) beat Aarthie Ramaswamy (1)
Bagirov Rufat (2) beat Kolly Jacques (1)
Antonio Campanile (1) lost to D V Prasad (2)
P Konguvel (2) beat Ireneusz Lada (1).